


Sleep Walker

by sunflowerday



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Comfort/Angst, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Pidge | Katie Holt-centric, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-07
Updated: 2016-10-07
Packaged: 2018-08-20 00:35:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8230127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunflowerday/pseuds/sunflowerday
Summary: A one-shot of Pidge trying and failing to deal with the pressure of finding their family. Mainly involving Pidge and Shiro. This is another prompt from tumblr where I was asked to do "Pidge sleeping in weird places" and the sentence “Okay Pidge this is BY FAR the weirdest place we’ve found you napping this week!” ^u^





	

“Okay Pidge this is BY FAR the weirdest place we’ve found you napping this week!”

Pidge forced their eyes open and blearily looked around. Lance and Hunk stared down at Pidge who seemed to be… under a bed.

“What? So I’m under the bed instead of on top of it, sue me.” Pidge crawled out from under the bed and stretched, but nothing was going to get rid of the crick in their neck any time soon.

“This isn’t even _your room_. It’s mine!” Lance cried out. _That_ made Pidge look around the room again and try to focus. Okay… they had no idea how they even ended up here.

“Oh, well… sorry. I’ll get out of here,” Pidge said as they put the blanket they’d pulled off Lance’s bed back onto it. Hunk put a big hand onto Pidge’s shoulder before they could escape.

“Are you actually going to sleep? Like, you know, in your bed?” he asked, frowning slightly.

“No, I’ve… got work to do. I should get back to it,” Pidge said, shrugging off Hunk’s hand as they headed for the door.

“Ah, come on, man. You’ve been working nonstop all week! Can’t you take a break?” Lance said as he blocked the door, effectually stopping Pidge. They gave him an exasperated look, but Lance didn’t budge.

“Yeah, man. It’s not good for you, you’re practically dead on your feet,” Hunk added as he moved next to Lance. Pidge knew exactly what they looked like right now, and Hunk’s description wasn’t far off. Every once in awhile they’d check their mirror and wonder if the dark circles might stay there permanently. It didn’t matter, they weren’t interested in sleeping right now.

“Guys, can you just leave me alone,” Pidge said as they shoved between the two of them. Pidge could hear them protesting from behind them, but they ignored it. They quickly walked down the hall, grinding their teeth. What did Lance and Hunk know? Pidge didn’t need sleep, they needed to keep busy. There was so much information to go through. This time… this time there had to be something about their whereabouts. Pidge knew… they had to be close to the answer. 

Finally, Pidge found their computer again. Vaguely they wondered how on earth they’d managed to get all the way to Lance’s room. They didn’t remember a bit of it. 

Pidge settled back down, making sure all the wires were still connected. There was a plate of Coran’s green goo here as well. Pidge reflexively started eating it, grimacing slightly when they realized how cold it was. They weren’t sure when they might’ve gotten food before either. Pidge shrugged and forced themselves to eat it as they turned back to the computer screen. 

———————

That was it. That was all of the information. Nothing… nothing, nothing, nothing about Matt and their dad! 

Pidge threw down their headphones and shoved the laptop away. It knocked into the now empty plate, making it skid uselessly across the floor. Pidge dropped their head into their hands. They shook, was it from exhaustion or…?

They couldn’t stand it another minute. Pidge jumped to their feet and raced out of there. Trying not to think. Trying to not let that little thread of hope disappear. They could feel their eyes trying to close, all those hours of lost sleep dragged at Pidge’s heels, but they didn’t want to give in. They didn’t want to sleep or… the nightmares would come back. If they just… kept walking. 

Pidge choked back a sob and tried to rub at their eyes. The moment they looked away they crashed straight into something. 

Pidge yelped as they tumbled over head first and landed sprawled on the ground. Vaguely they heard something fall and whatever they had smashed into rocked back into place. Pidge felt in front of them, they couldn’t even keep their eyes open long enough to see where they were. It definitely was not because they couldn’t see through the tears. They weren’t crying… definitely not.

Slowly they pulled themselves up onto something. It was probably a bed. They’d just… sleep for a little bit… Just long enough… to pull themselves together… before anyone saw them…

They weren’t sure if they were really asleep. They stumbled forward; were their eyes opened or closed? It felt like they walked for hours, searching but not finding anything.

“Why…?”

The voice ripped through Pidge, knocking them to their knees.

“Katie… Why didn’t you find us?”

“Matt…!” Pidge gasped. They jerked back to their feet, arms reaching but there was only emptiness in the dark. 

“Matt… Matt please I’m… still searching. I’m still looking for you! I’ll… I’ll find you, please…” Pidge begged, as they started walking, trying to grab onto Matt.

“It’s already too late…” 

His voice sounded even farther away than before. Pidge started running, their arms blindly wheeling around in front of them.

“No! No it’s not too late you’re right here! Just come back! Matt, come… come back…” they were crying again. They struggled forward, but nothing was there.

“Pidge…?”

The voice wasn’t Matt anymore. Where was he? Why couldn’t they find them? He had been right here!

“Pidge… wake up…”

They leaped forward, trying to make one last grab for Matt. Their arms fell through empty space. They waited to crash onto the floor, but it never came. Instead, they plunged through the darkness.

“Pidge!”

They jerked awake, thunking their head on the surface they were laying on.

“Oww…” Pidge muttered as they rubbed the back of their head and looked up to see Shiro looking down at them.

“Are you okay?” he asked, concern evident in his voice.

“I’m fine,” Pidge said shortly.

“Uh, you do know you’re sleeping on the cafeteria table.” 

Pidge sat up and looked around. They were indeed in the cafeteria, sitting on top of one of the tables. There was the boxes they’d fallen over, still scattered around. Pidge rubbed their eyes, before suddenly freezing.

“Matt’s—! I mean, my glasses! I-I must’ve dropped them. Shiro where—“ Pidge yelped frantically before noticing that Shiro was holding the glasses out to Pidge. Slowly they took them from Shiro and put them back in their familiar place.

“Do you even need to wear glasses?” Shiro said quietly, leaning against the table’s edge.

Pidge sighed. “No… I don’t.” 

“You don’t have to keep wearing them around us, you know?” 

“Yeah, I… I know, but… it feels like he’s still close by… if I wear them,” Pidge said, adjusting the glasses slightly. Shiro didn’t say anything to that. Pidge watched as he opened and closed his robotic arm, frowning. 

“I didn’t find anything… in the information we stole from that Galra ship,” Pidge added, unsure why they even said it. Shiro’s head lowered and Pidge tried not to imagine what kind of face he was making. 

“Is that what you’ve been doing for the past week? Is that why you’re not sleeping? Or… at least sleeping in really weird places,” Shiro asked, turning towards Pidge again.

“Yes…” Pidge started, quickly going on when they saw Shiro was about to argue, “It was a lot of information, okay? I had to go through it fast, what if it was time sensitive? What if they needed us? What if they didn’t have long? They could be out there right now, waiting for us! What if it’s already—“ They dragged in a breath, trying to stop the tears from spilling over again, when they were suddenly pulled into Shiro’s arms. They struggled for a second before letting their head fall onto Shiro’s chest.

“Pidge… we’re all doing the best we can. _You’re_ doing the best you can. You can’t half-kill yourself like this—“

“I _have_ to do this, Shiro! If I don’t work like this… if I get them killed…” Pidge said, still burying their head, trying to wipe their eyes from behind their glasses. 

“I know there’s… nothing I can say… or guarantee,” Shiro sighed. Pidge winced at the heavy guilt in his voice. “I’ve… already failed Matt and your father. I don’t know what could be happening to them right now. But none of us are giving up, we’re going to do whatever we can to get them back. Pidge you’re… not alone. I’m not asking you to stop, I’m asking you to let us help and just… try to actually sleep in your bed once in awhile?” 

Pidge actually giggled at that last part, surprising both of them. They gave up and let their tears fall as they wrapped their arms around Shiro as well.

“I’m an idiot, right?” Pidge asked, still laughing quietly. Maybe the sleep deprivation was finally getting to them. Or maybe… they really were an idiot. Did they already forget they were part of a team now? Their own crew, just like their dad always said? Pidge exhaled, trying to pull themselves together.

“Are you okay?” Shiro said as Pidge gently pushed him away. His confused expression would’ve almost been funny if he didn’t still have tears in his eyes.

“I’m okay, really I’m… fine. Thanks for… saying all that. You’re right,” Pidge said, relieved as Shiro’s expression softened. Pidge smiled and lightly punched Shiro in the arm. “And don’t go thinking I blame you for what happened to Matt and my dad. It’s not your fault.”

Shiro opened his mouth and closed it, another tear slipping past the scar on the bridge of his nose. Pidge tried not to think about how long Shiro might have felt like that… that Pidge blamed him for all of this. They tried a smile, hoping Shiro believed them.

“Come on, how about we try to find my bed? Or maybe I should sleep under Lance’s bed again?” Pidge joked, finally getting Shiro to smile again.

“How did you even manage that?” Shiro moved away from the table and put an arm over Pidge’s shoulders. They leaned into him, feeling more at peace than they had in awhile. They’d have to make sure and go to apologize to everyone when they woke up.

“You know, it was actually comfortable somehow. 10/10 would sleep under Lance’s bed like a gremlin again.”

Shiro laughed and Pidge smiled, feeling like they could finally sleep.


End file.
